Notes: Bengals No. 2 in YAC; Refs welcomed back

According to Elias Sports Bureau the Bengals are second in the NFL in yards after catch with 468 yards, only a first down away from Detroit's 478.

Bengals wide receiver Andrew Hawkins is second in the individual stats with 172, trailing only Percy Harvin of the Vikings with 217. Hawkins has 208 yards overall on 12 catches for a 17.3-yard average, seventh in the league. Harvin leads the NFL with 27 catches and has a 10.3-yard average.

Cincinnati's A.J. Green, the AFC leader with 311 yards and second in the NFL only to Detroit's Calvin Johnson and his 369, is eighth among wide receivers in YAC with 107. Green, with a 14.8-yard average, leads Reggie Wayne of the Colts by 17 yards and New England's Wes Welker by 60 in overall yardage.

LEE RELEASED: To make room for safety Chris Crocker on the roster the Bengals cut one of their four tight ends, Donald Lee, a 10-year veteran yet to play this season because of thigh and quad problems. Since the Bengals didn't put him on season-ending injured reserve, they could go re-sign him if needed. Lee, 32, had some big plays last season when Jermaine Gresham was injured after he came over from the Super Bowl champion Packers in September. The Bengals took receiving-type Orson Charles in the fourth round and are looking at 264-pound Richard Quinn as a blocker.

SLANTS AND SCREENS

» Cornerback Adam Jones isn't happy he got fined $15,000 for a horse-collar tackle in Sunday's game. First, he doesn't think it was a horse-collar and second, he has seen players get fined $10,000 for late hits, which he thinks is more egregious.

And he's not hopeful of an appeal.

"Adam Jones has never won an appeal with the NFL," said Jones, who revealed he was fined $75,000 before this season for an incident during the 2011 lockout in a Cincinnati bar that got settled.

Jones said now that the referee lockout has ended, the DBs can't be as hands-on in coverage because the replacement refs let a lot go. But he said he never thought about the replacements during the games.

"I just tried to do my job," he said. "The refs are going to make the call they're going to make, so why worry about it?

"But (the settlement) is good for the league."

Jones's biggest beef was with the fine.

"I'm not happy about it," he said. "If you look at the film, like you should look at it, it's clear that I had the jersey. I could see if it's a late hit. No way a guy gets $10,000 for a late hit and I get $15,000. It's ridiculous. If I hit somebody late, it should be more than a horse-collar for a frst offense."

Jones is going to do the appeal via New York. He's not optimistic, but he won't change his style, either.

"I'm going to be physical," he said. "I'm not going to stop playing hard becaue I get fined every week. My goal is to play hard, play smart, play fast. If I get fined within those lines, it is what it is."

» Left tackle Andrew Whitworth, the club's player rep to the NFL Players Association, said he's happy because he thought the games had been getting out of control from a physical standpoint and that there had been too much extra going on. What had him upset in Monday night's game wasn't the touchdown call at the end, but Packers wide receiver Greg Jennings's altercation with Seattle cornerback Brandon Browner.

"My biggest concern was the control of the games. The Baltimore and New England game, you could see pushing and shoving after every snap," Whitworth said. "You're thinking this is getting out of hand, there's going to be a huge fight, guys are going to get hurt defending themselves and that's not how the game should be played. It was more the extra stuff happening late in plays.

"Stuff that no way should be allowed. Like what happened to Greg Jennings the other night getting hit by Browner way late at the end of the play and then jumping on top of him in the end zone and burying him into the ground. Get thrown out of the game. At least a 15-yard penalty. Some of the things have been absurd."

» Running back Bernard Scott (ankle) and Whitworth (knee) returned to practice Thursday and were limited. Center Jeff Faine (hamstring) limited Wednesday, watched Thursday as a DNP. Right end Michael Johnson (foot) surfaced on the injury report as limited. Safety Reggie Nelson (shoulder) went full.

Everyone saw it coming, but it still didn’t make it any easier Friday when the Bengals released one of their more versatile players and valued leaders across the defensive front and around the locker room in 11-year veteran Robert Geathers.